Posted on 06/17/2011 10:58:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
PHOENIX (BP)--A coalition of homosexual leaders and their allies met for more than 30 minutes Tuesday with Southern Baptist Convention President Bryant Wright, with the leaders demanding an apology from the SBC and Wright refusing to budge, saying that Scripture is clear on the issue.
The remarkable meeting -- cordial the entire time -- took place between the morning and afternoon sessions of the SBC in Wright's annual meeting office at the Phoenix Convention Center.
The nine-person coalition included representatives of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, Faith in America and Truth Wins Out. They protested outside the convention hall and requested to deliver petitions to Wright, who decided to turn the event into a dialogue. Several members of the media also attended.
"We're a coalition of groups asking the SBC to acknowledge and apologize for the damage that the convention has done to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people," Jack McKinney, a heterosexual married man told Wright at the beginning of the meeting. McKinney is a spokesperson for Faith in America and a former Southern Baptist minister. McKinney and the other leaders repeatedly made parallels between racism and a stance against homosexuality. Sixteen years ago to the day, McKinney said, Southern Baptists passed a resolution apologizing for past racism.
"We feel like the convention is making the same mistake in the way it has demonized LGBT people," said McKinney, who handed Wright a packet of 10,000 signatures. "We come today to ask for an apology for that and for a pledge that those kinds of teachings would come to an end."
Wright, sitting at a roundtable with McKinney and four of the other leaders, rejected the parallels.
"Obviously, we don't feel that there can be an apology for teaching sexual purity," Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., said. "As followers of Christ, our only authority for practicing our faith is Scripture, is the Word of God.... As followers of Christ it would be very difficult for us to betray our faith by ignoring what God says about sexual purity."
The Bible condemns both homosexual sex and heterosexual sex that is outside the bonds of marriage, Wright said.
"When I teach from the pulpit about adultery, I don't hate adulterers," Wright said. "Just as we have people attending our local church that are engaging in homosexual activity, we have people attending our church who are engaging in adultery. I don't hate those people when I speak about adultery. I am just, hopefully, loving them enough to speak the truth about what God desires for the best for that person."
Similarly, when Wright preaches about the Bible's prohibition on premarital sex, that doesn't "mean we hate teenagers," he said.
Mitchell Gold, Faith in America's founder, then spoke.
"I remember during the 1960s similar words justifying a position against integration and justifying a whole attitude toward black people. Part of what we are saying to you is, you really made a big mistake before and you apologized for it, you recognized it," Gold said.
"There's an enormous amount of harm" done to teens by the SBC's stance, Gold said, handing Wright a book written by Gold, "Crisis," that details stories of people who grew up homosexual.
Although some of the leaders said ex-gay ministries were harmful, Wright disagreed, saying "there really have been" people who have left homosexuality through the various ministries.
"The standard of Scripture for heterosexual single adults" and for homosexual single adults is "no different," Wright said. Both groups are, he said, to abstain from sex.
Wayne Besen, a leading homosexual activist and a former Human Rights Campaign spokesperson, interjected, "You're asking for people to surrender their humanity."
Wright drew the conversation back to his Christian faith.
"Jesus Christ came to die for all of our sins, whether it's heterosexual sin or whether it's homosexual sin.... For a society to come along at this stage in history and all of a sudden say that one of the ... areas that Christ has no power" over is "homosexual behavior is really elevating the importance of that behavior above the power of Christ.
"Looking at sexual purity from Scripture, we're not going to be able to come to common ground. I hope you all would respect that we're just seeking to follow Jesus."
Wright began drawing the meeting to a close with a personal plea.
"Christ loves you Wayne, He loves you Mitchell, He loves Robin [Lunn of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists], He loves me in spite of my incredible amount of sin," Wright said. "... But He does not desire for us to continue to engage in sinful behavior that He very clearly says is not good."
‘Wright, from the heart’.
The Bible condemns both homosexual sex and heterosexual sex that is outside the bonds of marriage, Wright said.
In all honesty, SBC President Bryant Wright actually dodged the whole issue of the God's view of homesexuality as defined in the Bible. His statement that "The Bible condemns both homosexual sex and heterosexual sex that is outside the bonds of marriage" is unbelieveable and completely false. Where in the entire Bible is homosexuality comdemned because of impurity before marriage? Homosexuality & Lesbianism are condemned because it is a perverted, unnatural, reprobate behavior (Romans 1:18-32, Lev 18:22-24, I Cor 6:9-10) not because it is simply "impure" outside the bonds of marriage. Homosexuality is condemned in the Bible period as a perverted, unnatural, unholy choice (again Rom 1:18-32), that is the final stage of reprobate behavior against God.
SBC Bryant Wright completely dodged the whole issue of what the Bible says about homosexuality by referencing it simply as an issue of impurity before marriage. It sounds like he is making a case for homosexual & lesbian marriage, if the issue is simply "impurity" before marriage. What a weakling & a dunce, for not standing up and proclaiming what the Bible actually says about it. He could have just quoted the Bible references & verses, and left his own misguided opinions out of it.
Be assured that the sodomite coalition is applauding this meeting as a great victory. Incrementalism is their core strategy, and it worked for them yet again.
What the SBC leadership should have done, what they would have done in a saner, more spiritually discerning time, is not to have given the sodomites the time of day. And they should have shredded the petition signatures on sight. And no, this would not have been an "unloving" act. Love has been completely mischaracterized by the left over the past couple of decades, and we conservatives have swallowed this new, false definition whole.
I noticed that too, and I'm sure the militant homosexual coalition did as well. Why are Christians so afraid to call sin sin in this day? It was an appalling error on his part. It left the door open for the wedge to be inserted.
I’m expecting an apology from the SBC leadership, as weak as they’ve become spiritually, although it will be “qualified” as something else to save face - something along the lines of “if we have unnecessarily offended any one with inadvertent and unintended scorn, we apologize.” But the sodomites will take this blank check to the bank.
Read my post #22. It would have been nice if Wright had actually used & quoted scripture rather than his own pandering, nuanced opinion. What does the Bible say about homosexuality and then go to those passages? That's how he should have answered. He just made heterosexuality & homosexuality on the same equivalent plane by declaring that there should be sexual purity before marriage. Huh? So I guess the answer then is to allow for homosexual & lesbian marriage which would be the next logical step according to that line of reasoning.
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You are correct, Reverend Wright should have used the abundant and applicable scripture, especially since he was dealing with Christians. I used the term ‘inventive’ because I was attempting to be polite. Perhaps too polite. Reverend Wright came to a good conclusion but took the wrong route to get there. Scripture is the only valid answer to those in the church who attempt to excuse the sin of homosexuality. It is what it is.
"Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."
Yes, I agree with your comments with the exception of “dealing with Christians”? I question their “born again” status if these homosexual zealots are so willing to flaunt & disregard the clear teaching of Scripture.
A Southern Baptish here, proud of my denomination’s leadership. That homosexual acts are sinful is as clear as anything in the Bible. That other sins are just as sinful, and that we are all sinners needing a Savior, is just as clear.
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